Ryan Day pressed on if Ohio State had interest in Riley Leonard in transfer portal

The Transfer Portal has become a key piece of how programs build their rosters. That was no different for the two teams in this year’s National Championship Game, as both Ohio State head coach Ryan Day and Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman went to the portal to find their next quarterbacks following last season.

Notre Dame landed on Riley Leonard at quarterback while Ohio State landed on Will Howard. Now, ahead of their meeting, Day was asked if he looked at Leonard at all in the portal, and while Day wasn’t interested in saying if he wanted Leonard, he did take time to praise the Notre Dame signal caller.

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“I think Riley made his decision pretty quickly,” Ryan Day said. “But he is somebody that I’ve respected from afar. Just the way that he competes. He’s a great athlete. He’s got a great mindset. Again, watching him play this year and the toughness and leadership that he brings. You can tell that the offense and the entire team feeds off of him. So, a lot of respect for his game.”

When Riley Leonard initially entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, he did so with a do not contact tag. That, generally, means a player already knows where they’re going to transfer. In Leonard’s case, that was Notre Dame where he became the starter. Through 15 games, he’s completed 66.4 percent of his passes for 2,606 yards and 19 touchdowns to eight interceptions. He’s also rushed for 866 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Ohio State ended up making the move from Kyle McCord to Will Howard. In his 15 games, he’s completed 72.6 percent of his passes for 3,779 yards and 33 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. He’s also rushed for 169 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground.

For each of the two quarterbacks, they’ve brought veteran leadership to their respective teams. That has helped create consistency on offense and helped lead their teams, especially in the College Football Playoff.

In the end, it’s hard not to say that things have worked out for everyone involved. Both Riley Leonard and Will Howard led their individual teams to the National Championship Game.

Riley Leonard chose Notre Dame to win a national championship

Following Notre Dame’s Orange Bowl win, he shared why he went to Notre Dame. He wanted to go somewhere he could win a national championship.

“Yeah, throughout this whole off-season everybody would ask me why I came to Notre Dame and I would give a lot of different answers, but the truth is I came here to win a national championship and to go to the best team that would give me the best chance to do that,” Leonard said. “Obviously this is the right place and I made the right decision. That’s why I came here, at the end of the day.”

The National Championship Game between Notre Dame and Ohio State is set to be played on Monday, January 20th at 7:30 p.m. EST.